Louisville 66 Beetle

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:02 am

Yesterday we finished the last of the DynaMat on the forward bulkhead and inside the front trunk. As dad did the DynaMat I installed the RH door latch assembly and window with regulator. Started looking at how we are going to mount our turn signals on the front fenders. There are no holes in the fenders so we will be drilling holes. Thanks to Blue Baron I think we have a good idea how we will get it done. Hopefully this week. It was a slow lazy day yesterday.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:43 pm

The last couple of weeks not much has gotten done. We got a new steering wheel in a couple of weeks ago, but it was for a type 3 and did not have the cut out for the horn ring. Returned, and hopefully the correct wheel is on it way. We will find out soon enough. Dad cut the holes for the fender turn signal light assemblies last weekend and they look good. Somehow the parts guy, me, missed getting two gaskets so the left side is done and wired. The right side is waiting on the parts guy to get his act together. Today, I worked on getting the left door window, regulator and window felts installed. The right side is done. We had found scratches on the left widow, but a new window came in and got it all together today. We came to a decision today to have an upholsterer put the headliner in. Mostly because of time, but we also think that someone who has done it before would probably do a cleaner install.

The tail light housings and license plate housing are in the works to be repainted. When the car was repainted for some reason they are way off on color.

I have been researching the rear view mirror for several weeks now. I suspect several people will scratch their heads at that last sentence and think that is a no brainer. Well, I would agree, but this car had it's roof replaced after a roll over in the 90's and from what I can tell, and I'm no expert, but it looks like a roof from a 1968 model. Instead of three screw holes there is only one big opening. Dad said it looks like the 68' mirror slot where the mirror slides in and snaps into place. Everything I can find online about differences between 66' and 68' look to be the same except for the rear view mirror mount. Any thoughts?

I will post some photos in the next day or so.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:36 pm

Today was pretty productive. We started out going over to the fairgrounds to see the last day of the Street Rod Nationals that was hosted in Louisville. Several Beetles in the mix and a lot of really cool cars.

We got back to the garage and hit it pretty good today. I worked on the defrost hoses for the dash while dad worked on getting the rear taillights put together and wired. I also got the glove compartment installed. Taillight housings and license plate housings got repainted and look pretty good. New steering wheel came back in and looks great. West Coast Metric did a good job hooking us up. We also got the aluminum moldings on the side and on the front hood. All in all it was a fun day in the garage. Starting to look like more and more like a complete Beetle every weekend.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 8:08 am

The last 3 weeks have been slow going on the Beetle. Recovering seats and did a carpet fit test. Next week we are going to get the headline put in. Here are a few photos from the last couple of weeks.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 8:18 am

Yesterday we got two cool items in the mail.

Thanks rareair, looks great!

And found a '66 Indiana tag in great shape. Pretty cool that Indiana had their 150th Anniversary of statehood in 1966.

Fozzy · Post by **Fozzy** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 1:07 pm

Awesome!! I can only hope mine turns out this well!!

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:29 pm

Slow going lately. Dad and I have been out of town the last 3 or 4 weekends and haven't been able to get a lot done. Yesterday I installed the door seals on both doors. The left door was a little difficult. It was damaged in the roll over a long time ago and the upper groove the seal goes into was a little tight. Had to open the groove some. Some things I wish we had been in on before the paint was applied. Just little fit and finish stuff. I then turned my attention to the rear view mirror. As stated before, this car was in a roll over crash in the mid 90's. The roof was replaced, but the folks that did the body work put a roof on the car, it looks like, from a 68' beetle. I say 68' because at the location the rear view mirror goes did not have just 3 holes to screw the mirror in. It had a slot like the 68' has where the mirror snaps in. So I drilled three holes and mounted the mirror as best I could.

That got me thinking about the sun visors. We ordered 66' visors. I took the 66' visors and installed them and the clip for the visors by the mirror are were a little farther apart than the 66'. I went to the old parts bin and found what I believe are a set of 68' clips and screwed them in and with a little messaging they worked.

I then wanted to do some more fit tests with other intierior parts and wanted to see how the interior color would look with the rest of the car. The red seats and black carpet look pretty good.

I got the door handle locks back from the locksmith and installed them. We wanted both door handles to be keyed alike.

And last I worked on the door panels. Going to get the plastic on the backside and prepping to install after car gets back from the upholstery shop. Guess I'm getting ahead of myself a little. The car probably won't got to upholstery shop until next month. Scheduling stuff has been pretty loose and by the seat of our pants. Life seems to help get in the way to some times.

The folks a long time ago that did the body work and paint also did us another great favor. They were very generous with the spray in sound deadening spray, which was worthless by the way. I've spent more time cleaning overspray off the interior paint than I would like to be doing. You can see it in the rear view mirror photos. I think that will be at the top of next weekends list to finally knock that crap out once and for all.

We are looking for an engine deck lid latch. One without a key. Every latch with a key does match up to the door key type. Less keys the better. We are also looking for a high beam switch that goes on the turn signal lever. We don't want the floor mounted switch. We only find the switch on black turn signal switch sets. Can't find a grey set. So if you have an old switch that works we would be interested. Holler if you have either of these parts or know a place to get them.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:57 am

Well, got the Beetle all hooked up and ready to go to the upholstery shop today for a headliner install. Thought I would share a few photos.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:26 am

Had a little setback before the Christmas break. Earlier in this tread I talked about how this car was rolled over in the mid 90's and the roof was replaced. Well, as previously discussed, the roof was replaced with a 68' roof and we ordered a headliner for a 66'. The difference is the head liner in a 68' is 2" longer. We didn't count on that, and the upholstery guy gave us the bad news. We ordered a new headline for a 68' and will get the car back over to the upholstery guy in the new year to install it. Had to go pick up the car before the we left for vacation. The Beetle wiring has not been double checked yet, so there is no power. Had to do a little engineering to to have lights on the car. It made for an interesting tow back to the house to say the least. Had to go to a gas station and got to flashlights. The flashlights had clips on them, which was very convenient, and aimed them at the tale lights. Luckily the truck was a lot wider so other drivers could see the brake lights. No, it wasn't right, but it's what I had to do to get the car back home before bad weather moved in the next day.

1966veedub · Post by **1966veedub** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 3:42 pm

Magnetic tow lights would work, too.....but that shows ingenuity!

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:46 pm

1966veedub wrote:Magnetic tow lights would work, too.....but that shows ingenuity!

I got a set the other day. I was not excited about breaking the law to get that car home the other night. Won't be playing that game again anymore. I like my clean driving record and would like to keep it that way.

1966veedub · Post by **1966veedub** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 6:28 pm

Cool. Can't wait to see pics of the headliner installed. I'm actually going to try tacking the job on my bug myself eventually...to save some $$.

rcs_80 · Post by **rcs_80** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:30 am

That sucks, that overspray in the interior was pretty careless. How do you like the Dynamat so far? I'm thinking about putting the same in my 66.
Your car's looking great.

Speedmster · Post by **Speedmster** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:27 am

rcs_80 wrote:That sucks, that overspray in the interior was pretty careless. How do you like the Dynamat so far? I'm thinking about putting the same in my 66.
Your car's looking great.

So far so good. It was pretty easy to work with when we installed it. Haven't gotten it on the road yet to hear the real results. One thing I like about it is that it is not thick and won't eat up space behind upholstery. Only thing about Dynamat is the price, it's high. I have talked to several folks in the street rod community a while back and quite a few were pushing an equivalent product but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. When I get back home I will get the name for you. Might be a little easier on the pocket book with same results. We opted to go with Dynamat.

rcs_80 · Post by **rcs_80** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:13 pm

Speedmster wrote:
rcs_80 wrote:That sucks, that overspray in the interior was pretty careless. How do you like the Dynamat so far? I'm thinking about putting the same in my 66.
Your car's looking great.
So far so good. It was pretty easy to work with when we installed it. Haven't gotten it on the road yet to hear the real results. One thing I like about it is that it is not thick and won't eat up space behind upholstery. Only thing about Dynamat is the price, it's high. I have talked to several folks in the street rod community a while back and quite a few were pushing an equivalent product but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. When I get back home I will get the name for you. Might be a little easier on the pocket book with same results. We opted to go with Dynamat.

Ok, cool. Yes please let me know. Thanks!

The 1966 VW Beetle Forum

Louisville 66 Beetle

Headed to upholstery shop.